Mirrors, Echoes, Dialogues

Physiognomics, or the intellectual fashions of the era

The writer’s sensitivity to the scientific (or pseudoscientific) concepts, extremely popular in the 19th century, concerning the interpretation of a person’s character, experiences, and talents from their facial features, skull structure, and facial expressions is attested to by numerous descriptions of Pan Graba’s characters. Orzeszkowa was undoubtedly intimately familiar with the physiognomic theories of Swiss pastor Johann Caspar Lavater (who developed the ancient theory that the face reflects character) and the anatomical findings of Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall (who linked the shape of the skull with a person’s predispositions). These names appear in the novel’s descriptions of the Słabecki siblings – at the first introduction to Ryta (“Gall or Lavater would likely have guessed from that forehead an extraordinary mind, but any ordinary mortal could have accused it of being excessively high and convex compared to other features” – Pan Graba, part 2, chapter 4) and in the last portrait of the deceased Tozio, sleeping in white sheets “without sleep” (“Gall and Lavater, if they were friends of humanity, would be delighted to see this skull and these features” – part 3, chapter 9). Not only is the reader encouraged to make physiognomic studies of the characters’ appearances, the characters themselves also try to do so, especially those who try to decipher the character of Kalikst Graba. However, they prove to be unskilled, naive physiognomists (like the inexperienced Kamilla G. or the elegant society of the city of M.), focusing on the regularity of the protagonist’s features (evidencing his noble origins) rather than on observing facial expressions or involuntary bodily reactions that reveal the truth about a person. Such “informative character of the face” is an expression (or even a demonstration) of an individual’s individuality; for example, the nervous twitching of the eye and mouth on Mr. Graba’s pale yellow face unmasks his physical and moral illnesses and “debilitating passions.” Orzeszkowa, guided by the principles of pathognomy, thus achieves a suspicious disharmony in the form of an attractive and still young man. 

The writer’s distance from the uncritical use of physiognomic interpretations is revealed not only in the descriptions of the mistakes made by the characters, but also in the protagonist’s lecture on the “physical mask” provided by hair dye and make-up, which helps hide the traces of the “sad metamorphosis of the superficial” left by a dissolute life:

So here is my physical mask, the donning of which costs me an hour of work at the dressing table every day, but in return brings me success with the fair sex and helps me gain the influence over people that I desperately need. […] It is a passport, by showing which, if well written, you pass through the gates of human sympathy and trust; it is a letter of recommendation, without which you do not knock for free on the hearts and minds of men. (Pan Graba, part 2, chapter 1)

Superficiality can therefore accurately characterize the character – but it can also deceive, consciously cheat, promise more than it actually delivers, and the psychological theories based on its analysis are sometimes presented in the novel in a not entirely serious way, as for example in Graba’s cynical commentary on the boast of one of the representatives of the golden youth of the city of M., who repaired his damaged fortune with a rich marriage: “That is what people who understand the art of living are accustomed to do,” replied Kalikst, “and your action brings honour to the enterprising and industrial tumour of his skull.” (Pan Graba, part 1, chapter 3). This humorous allusion to the phrenological theory popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, according to which the shape of the skull corresponds to the physical and mental characteristics of its owner and serves as a basis for determining possible brain disorders, is here an expression of a kind of play with the reader, a reference to commonly available extratextual knowledge that can become the subject of brilliant conversation and social wit. Clues to the character and moral assessment of the characters can be expected when the characters described pale, blush crimson, lose control of their hands and voices, bite their lips, exchange meaningful glances, or lower their eyes. Tests of strength between the characters sometimes take the form of a duel of glances between men and women, especially when strong feelings cannot be expressed in words. Such a silent struggle takes place during Graba’s visit to the Kloński family, when the sinister guest strengthens his influence over the master of the house (who involuntarily begins to imitate his behaviour and adopt certain mannerisms) and also undermines the position of his wife: 

Graba took Stanisław by the arm, began walking with him around the living room, and began to talk quietly about something, something that made them both laugh. Cesia, who followed them through the doorway with her gaze, thought her husband’s laughter was initially a bit forced, but gradually it became more relaxed, finally taking on a harsh tone. The young woman didn’t understand the sound, but shuddered involuntarily; a trained ear would have detected a budding cynicism in Stanisław’s laughter, aroused by Graba’s conversation. Every time the two men approached the door to the room where Celina was sitting, Graba cast a triumphant, mocking glance into the small office, which fell like a boiling pot on Cesia’s head. Under his influence, the young woman lowered her eyes, while Stanisław tried to look away to avoid his wife’s gaze. This game of glances, in which the swelling passions and fears of three breasts silently crossed, lasted for a good quarter of an hour, at the end of which Celina, as if exhausted, leaned against the armrest of the couch and covered her eyes with her hand. (Pan Graba, part 1, chapter 6)

These pathognomic descriptions of physiological reactions to strong emotions are, in the author’s opinion, an indicator of the truth about man and prove her ability to observe human behaviour.